Henry

I'm currently working on a personal project to experiment with my digital illustration skills. It's a comic I've titled "Henry". Here are the first six pages.

 ~James

PCS, COPOUT, and Storyboards

Hey everybody! I'm feeling the fall breezes and loving it. Got back last night from the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society's book release shindig at Locust Moon Comics near 40th and Chestnut. If any of you are in the area, check it out, there's a gallery up of Cartoonist Society member's pieces (including one by yours truly). I showed up late and drenched but warmed up after cocooning myself in paper towels in the bathroom.

Alongside the PCS, some COPOUT members made an appearance too. The newest COPOUT release was just a day prior featuring the great and talented duo of Billy Martin and Andy Hood and featuring a cover by me. You can search the SPX convention floors for them as they'll be there passing out books and perusing the booths. And don't forget to keep checking Arthur, new installments abound every Monday...except this Monday.

I haven't been able to sit down and draft a new page because I've been so busy doing storyboards. I'm happy to say I've just completed a set of boards for a promo on the PBS based Sprout channel and am starting a new group for NBC. It's been busy but fun, and I hope to not look completely disfigured from sleep depravation on the other side.
Until next time, keep on keepin' on.

~James

PS
Some sites you should check out:
Monster Monday Comic Strip by Patch
PCS Blog by the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society
Arthur the World's Strongest Boy by Billy Martin, Andy, and me
COPOUT on Tumblr by COPOUT Artists

New Arthur Pages

Well the new page of Arthur: The World's Strongest Boy is up on the tumblr (here). There's a new page every Monday, so be sure to follow the tumblr or bookmark it or what-have-you. The latest page was a lot of fun to draw. I have a soft spot for splash pages, and this one had some interesting characters. As always, type and inks are by Andy Hood, script and colors are by Billy Martin, and pencils are by me. Below I have the pencils for the latest two pages. Enjoy!

 

 ~James

Arthur project

If you didn't know already, Me, Billy Martin, and Andy Hood are working on a new project together called Arthur: The World's Strongest Boy.
Page 2 of Arthur is up. You can look for new pages every week! Here's the link: LINK! The pencils for it are posted below. The script/color is by Billy Martin, the pencils are by me, and the inks/type are by Andy Hood.

~James

Magikarpe Diem

Did this piece for a Pokemon fan show. I'm going to try and push one more out to possibly have two pieces in the show. I'll post the details of the gallery when it's coming around. There're a lot of super talented people in this show with a lot of super awesome pieces.

Taking Care of Business

Had these guys come in the other day. In other news, I went to Wizard World comic con at the Philly Convention Center. Had a blast and met some awesome people including Tom Batiuk (creater of Funky Winkerbean), Mike Deodato Jr., and Patrick Stewart. Yeah, I met Professor Xavior. Christine Larsen, Christian "Patch" Patchell, Tim Durning, and the South Fellini fellows had booths set up. If you didn't get a chance to see any of their stuff, check them out (links on their names). Aside from that, I've been working on a big project with a friend of mine. I'll let you all know more about that when It's getting close to finished.
~James

Cavepeople

Set up a new promo the other night that involves cavemen. I find this to be a step up the evolutionary ladder from my normal go-to, chimps. Here's the front of the card. The back has a little description, contact info, and an envelope attached with several stickers to put on the front so they can "discover" something new. You can stick with the classic fire, or make it a bowling ball or even a telephone. Them cave-people were industrious folk, it could've happened. If you like my work, feel free to fan me on facebook. I want to try and get to 50 likes this week.

Enjoy
~James

A Piece of the April

Hello all! Now, first things first, I want err'yone to be aware of my new website (you may have spotted a link above to the right) called Kaminskivision. It's my online portfolio site, so feel free to drop a comment there and tell me how you like it or just to say hey. My facebook fan page, twitter, and tumblr are also around if anyone didn't know or is interested. I try my best to update often.  Also here's some new fan pages on the face of book which everyone should like as well, fellow cartoonist society member and awesome illustrator Michelle Miller, and fellow cartoonist society member and awesome illustrator Chris "Patch" Patchell's "I Put the Can in Cancer" book fan page.

Well, here's a chimp to break this self-promoting schtuff to get the real meat of this post.

Anyways! I just wanted to post the most recent COPOUT comic I've done. With the year winding down, I wanted to push this comic a little more than I usually do with the COPOUT stuff. I got the idea to do this comic while walking home after a night at the bar around 3 am. The original idea was to have as many bread puns as I could fit, but I eventually realized that would have been incredibly stupid (however hilarious to me). So this is the current end product, it still needs some more editing in the inks. Some of the faces are a little wonky and need some touch-ups. Oh, and 100 internet dollars to whoever spots the line lifted straight out of Star Trek. Is it bad that most of my knowledge of 30's gangsters comes from Star Trek?

Beer Cans and Art Jams

Did some sketches at Bob and Barbara's bar the other night with fellow cartoonists Michelle Miller and Jeffro Kilpatrick. We had a good time making fun of the d-bags who eventually crowded the place. If you want to view the whole set, you can check 'em out on my facebook page linked here. While you're at it, you should fan my facebook page if you get the chance or like my work.

~James

2012 Ely

Poster art by Andy Hood

Every year, my school's/University of the Arts' illustration department holds a juried exhibition of the senior students' thesis works called the "ELY Exhibition". Here's the website's description:

 "This annual competitive exhibition features the work of the entire senior class of Illustration majors, giving them the opportunity to show their work to thousands of people. Endowed by its namesake in 1964, the William H. Ely Award for Excellence in Illustration is a juried exhibition featuring work ranging from CD jackets to concert posters, magazine spreads to elaborately ornamented surfboards. Cash prizes are awarded for the top three entries."

This year was judged by 3 artists: Jon Bartlett, Joe Devito, and Dan Blackman. There were 4 prizes given out and 4 honorable mentions. Every piece submitted to the gallery was extraordinary and everyone worked their asses off. Unexpectedly, my pieces were chosen for first prize.

A major congratulations to John Thomas, Kelsey Niziolek, Leah Romero, Michelle Miller, Nancy Hill, Crystal Ben, Andy Burger, and, well, everyone! It was a seriously great show.
I know I've uploaded some of the progress on these, but here are my 4 finished pieces:

~James

Hank: The Once and Future Kaminski

Some of you already know, but last week my dog of 14 years, Hank, passed away. He was the best pup in the world, and had a true Kaminski personality. Our family loved him dearly and he will be missed.

Hank stuck with me, even through the horrors of Fester's Quest.

He lived a good, long, full, life. He traveled several states and thusly pooped in them. He protected our yard from the evils of cats, bunnies, squirrels, and airplanes. He was always there and brought us a lot of happiness. Growing up with him around, I tended to use him as a drawing subject a lot. Here are the last sketches I drew of the pooch a few weeks before his passing:

 

As a final send off from me to him, I drew up a sketch of him and one of his first nicknames from way back in 1998 "Hank the Tank".  He'll always be my favorite dog and part of the Kaminski family. Rest in peace buddy.

~James

Breakwater Experiments

The other night I attended a concert for the Philly-born funk band: Breakwater. A friend of mine turned me on to them, but you may better know them from the guitar riff sampled from the song Release the Beast used in Daft Punk's Robot Rock.

The show was great and had me thinking up a gig poster for them in my head. So today I decided to diddy-up the design and try out some techniques illustrator-extraordinaire Christine Larson taught me over the summer (here's her quick step-by-step).
--I'll give you time to check out her site linked above on her name there, because you seriously should....Go on...GO I SAY!
So anywho, I wanted to test out some of those aforementioned techniques. I gave it a go and this was the result:

Of course, this was more of an experiment than a necessity to making the piece. The type needs a lot of tending too, maybe even a whole re-do, but I thought the piece as a whole came together pretty nicely. Leave some feedback or comments or something; would love to hear some critique.
~James

Coloring the cover, and pages 7 and 8.

Coloring the cover right now:

Almost done! Can't wait...

Pages 5 and 6

New pages. Getting it done, son!

ELY page 3 and 4

Posting this a little late, but here's the progress on the comic. Keep in mind that the colors need massive revising.

~James

Other Stuff

I finally colored the strength and weakness pieces of mine. They're one color, but I think it came out pretty nice. Maybe I'll try full color, but for now, subtle is the name of the game.
Here's a link to the previous post where you can see the sketches and inks.

Here are the last few sketch cards I'll be uploading here. I'll continue to throw 'em on the web, but mainly on my Tumblr.

Trading Card 3

Uploading one a day

~James

Trading Card 2

Uploading 1 a day

James

Trading Cards

Missed out on doing some artist trading cards, wanted to make some anyway. I'll upload one a day.

James